The Sour Kraut
Neustadt Springs Brewery

473 ml can purchased from the LCBO. Listed as 4.0% ABV now. Served cold in a tall mug.

Appearance - Hazy peach colored brew with hints of copper. Three fingers of white head rest on top and stay awhile leaving a plethora of lacing.

Smell raspberry up front with an earthy undertone and some grainy notes backing.

Taste - Strangely sweet, not nearly as tart as expected with some raspberry flavors behind and a subtle smokey caramel behind all that raspberry. Kind of strange although not unpleasant.

Mouthfeel - Light bodied with good carbonation. Nice summer beer.

Overall - Pretty decent light summer quaff with an interesting flavor combo that is less tart than expected.

Neustadt Springs Sour Kraut Raspberry Lager. 4% alc.

The beer has a thick white head that dissipates quickly. The colour is amber and there are lots of ascending bubbles.

The aroma is raspberry and white bread and the taste is the same. There is also a tea-like quality. In some respects it reminds me of raspberry ice tea.

The beer is light to medium bodied. The mouthfeel effervescent yet a bit watery.

First time trying this and I really enjoy it.

 

One of the best fruit beers I've ever tried. It is a very dry beer, one of the driest that I've ever had, the fruit presence is wonderful, and not overpowering, it still tastes like you're drinking a beer. One of the best things you could possibly drink on a hot summer day.

 

 

A: Straw and cloudy with a few small bubbles within. Whopping 5 finger white head leaving random chunks of lacing.


S: Yogurt, soured milk, floral strawberries, chocolate. The closest thing I can think of is a German Milkch Chocolate bar with strawberries and yogurt I had once.


T: Lager malts form a solid malt backbone, like a good Munich Lager, then a slight sour note, a light floral fruity note as well comes through. I’m thinking strawberries, though I read raspberries in the description, and oddly the sour kraut in the name. Light bittering hops on the end. The flavours all meld together making me think of a light fruit beer and lager combined.


M: Medium body, light carbonation.


O: Very out of the box, interesting brew. My brother picked this one up at the brewery. It came in a silver can with a hand slapped on white paper label, looks like a computer printed out. Drank Sept 1st, 2014 in Kunming, China.

 

This was a nice surprise. A raspberry beer that isn't overly sweet but subtle and refreshing. Poured a cloudy golden orange. Fresh raspberry nose. Taste has raspberry fruit without too much sweetness. There is a mild sour note as the name suggests, but overall it is more dry and very slightly butter. Great effervescence on the finish.

 

473 mL can from the brewery; best before December 7 2013 and listed at 4%. As far as fruit beers go, raspberry ones typically sit a lot better with me than most - but it was probably the catchy name that had more to do with me picking up this beer than anything. Served well-chilled.

Pours a pale rosé-apricot colour with some slight haziness, and topped with one finger of fizzy, off-white head that evaporates rather quickly over the next minute or two. The only remnants are a narrow collar and soapy film at the surface. The aroma is clean and subtle, with hints of wet hay, strawberry wafers and raspberry acidity. Milder than I’d like, but at the same time easy to appreciate.

It took a few sips to convince me that this was a pretty good fruit beer. A light raspberry tartness comes through initially, as well as some cherry, apricot, and vinous notes. It becomes considerably sweeter on the back end as biscuity malts begin to peek out from underneath the fruity features. There is a hint of cranberry toward the finish, and a mild tartness in the aftertaste that vanishes rapidly, leaving the palate dry. Light-bodied, with relatively strong carbonation that provides this brew with a lively, spritzy mouthfeel. This is one of those rare fruit beers that is not just light and balanced enough to be sessionable, but also flavorful and interesting enough for it to be worth doing so; a real pleasure to toss back.

Final Grade: 3.76, a respectable B+ grade. Neustadt’s Sour Kraut Lager is the kind of fruit beer I can really dig – one that is drinkable, but not completely one-dimensional. The tangy raspberry notes are firm but never overpowering, with a pleasant sour feel that permeates the entire flavour profile - save for the dry finish, which it turns out is the perfect counterpoint for the berry. Very well-balanced and exceptionally quaffable; this is one fruit beer that I would make a point to purchase every summer if it were distributed locally. This brew has enough going on flavour-wise to be a worthwhile option capable of satisfying many BAs, but it should also sit quite well with the flavoured malt beverage crowd (i.e. non-beer drinkers).

 

 

 

 

On cask at Victory as part of a cask event.

Looked beautiful - pale gold, quite clear with only the faintest haze. Very low carbonation with some large bubbles on top from the gravity pour.

Aromas of cider, white wine, a light acetic/lactic sourness. Vinous, sweet & sour flavor. The bartender said they use some kind of berry extract. Was keen on it at first, but as I continued drinking it, I wished it was tarter. Maybe it tasted sweeter as it warmed up, or the tartness just got less effective on my tongue, but by the end I thought it was too sweet considering its light body and low carbonation.

Glad I tried it but, like most N. American sours I've tried, I feel it could go a bit further with the pucker. Not sure I'd get it again, though I guess I'd like to see how it's different when force carbonated...

On-tap at C'est What?, in Toronto.

The beer's peach coloured body is so clear that light can pass through it as it would through a pane of glass. And it has a glow that could navigate your way through a cave. It is truly an immaculately clean beer, except that its head, which is akin to moss on a rock, leaves such a mess that it isn't long before you can't tell the glass from the lacing.

My first reaction to the beer: what the %#!$ is that? The answer to which, I quickly concluded, was: some kind of awesome. It's not known to me how this beer became sour, or how a sour beer could actually be so appealing, or what was added to make it appealing, but the bouquet has the sweet/sour character of children's candy, a 'fuzzy peach' to be precise.

And there's more candy to be had in the taste! 'Fuzzy peaches' combine with some other of my childhood favourites, 'sour keys' (the green apple kind) and 'cherry blasters', to make for a sugary-sweet, but also definitively sour, flavoured beer. Again, I'm not sure whether or not it was aged with fruit, but it tastes a lot of tart, under-ripe peach and apricot.

Despite what I've suggested, the sourness is not the least bit overpowering; it's hardly enough to make you pucker and little of it lingers. To give a better idea, it's far more mild than the sour, barrel-aged beers of California and, if anything, resembles the (better) commercial fruit lambics of Belgium. That said, it's a curiously unique offering.

Some beers happen with no grand plan in mind. This is indeed an odd duck. What its brewers intended will go the way of Jack the Ripper, the Bermuda Triangle and the world's other unsolved mysteries. But whatever they did it worked. And I hope they do it again - not only is it distinct from similar beers out there, but it's simply a real pleasure to drink too!

A surprise and interesting beer. Bright yellow with a small retained white head, and lacey.Smells of fruit and malt.Smooth, middling mouthfeel. A little cherry, raspberry, certainly other fruits in the blender. Good malt backbone, and a tad bretty. Not too sweet, tangy to the point of being moderately sour.Grows on me.

20 oz imperial pint at The King Edward Restaurant & Pub in Ilderton, ON. Described by the brewer as a "Belgian-style sour lager" (is there such a thing?), and it clocks in at 5.7% ABV. Pours a clear peachy orange with one finger of white foam and spots of lacing on the pint glass. Smell is black currants, perfume, cranberries, raspberries, and apple cider. Enticing aromas. Taste is pear, apple cider, cherry, and field berries, very fruity, sweet and zesty, malts contribute faint hints of bread and biscuit, hops add some spice and a slightly astringent bitterness (a tad prickly), mildly tart gooseberry sourness with more cranberry to end. Mouthfeel is light side of medium bodied, a little juicy through the middle, finishes with a balanced dryness. This is one hell of a beer - unique flavours, way fruitier and sweeter than your typical lager, sourness is well incorporated and never detracts from the drinkability. A true gem, I would like to see Sour Kraut available year round. Great work, Neustadt!